Taking care of the air we breathe

The recent string of advertisements issued in China, depicting polluting conditions in India, can be construed as an apt case of the pot calling the kettle black. These ads at public places in China show polluted Indian cities like Mumbai and Allahabad to warn the Chinese people about the impact of climate change and encourage them to plan their future around low carbon development. This is ironical, though, as China happens to be the world’s largest carbon emitter, with a contribution of 29 per cent to the world’s greenhouse gases, as compared to India’s six per cent.

But the fact remains that climate change and worrying levels of pollution pose equal challenge for progressive countries like India and China. A recent study had pointed out that India and China suffer over $1.89 trillion annually in terms of the value of lives lost and ill-health caused from air pollution. Given this situation, China is focussing on low carbon development as a key policy that is powered by public opinion to make its contribution in solving problem of global warming due to climate change.

India needs to ensure that the inescapable consequences of environmental degradation do not undermine the prospects of economic growth and development. With the population expected to grow immensely in future, the spatial designing for urban spaces and cities needs to be centered on low carbon development. This will help India to create a global model for sustainable and low carbon cities. 

To succeed in this venture, it is essential for the Government to develop low-carbon policies that include more efficient energy, better waste-water use and transport systems that reduce congestion.

But, India’s noisy political scenario with multiple political parties makes it difficult to achieve coherence and consensus over effective environmental policies that are politically and economically acceptable. As a result, crucial ecological conservation efforts are stalled. This state of affairs cannot continue, if India were to present a workable and effective commitment on climate at the upcoming United Nations Conference on Climate Change to be held at Paris. 

In order to excel and lead in environmental conservation at a global level, India must overhaul the process of designing and implementing environmental policies. For an effective policy, communication is a foremost priority as informing the concerned parties will enable comprehensive involvement of all stakeholders. Once informed, the Government must endeavour to form consensus among key stakeholders to agree on objectives of the policy. Policy implementation is as important as policy design. Hence, the Government must establish linkages between the Governments, business and civil society organisations in order to achieve the agreed-upon results.

It must also be remembered that the primary objective of a successful and effective environmental policy is to reduce the potentially harmful impact of human, and more specifically, economic activity on the environment. To this end and in view of the ecological challenges mankind faces today, the policy needs to foster far-reaching changes, both in individual behavior and consumption patterns, as well as product characteristics, industrial processes and resource use. In order to achieve this the Government must encourage the application of innovation in policy design and implementation. Successful innovation practices can become the key means of reaching environmental objectives and realising sustainable 

development goals. 

In addition to innovation, policies should also have healthy levels of flexibility enabling a wide variety of applications. Besides this, it is also crucial for the policies to be based on inputs derived from research and development and from best practices observed across the world. An effective environmental policy design must also accommodate the use of latest technology so that the policy upgradation as well as implementation becomes easy.

The policies are comparable to the voice of a nation as they reflect the people’s viewpoint and resolve on crucial issues. But for an effective policy building, robust public opinion is prerequisite. Countries like China are leaving no stone unturned to educate their citizens and form public opinion on environmental issues such as the perils of pollution and importance of low carbon future. The question is: Is India doing enough to raise the awareness levelsIJ 

The Government must assess the knowledge level of the common man regarding the environmental threats India is facing . The findings may come as a reality check and help the Government devise strategies for increasing general awareness on the impact of climate change. This will also help, shape public opinion — a critical ingredient for effective and successful environmental policy.